Ice Pops
by FlangstPrince
Summary: One shot. Post 2003, Pre CoS. Alphonse discovers something as he eats an apple flavored ice pop from Winry.


"Winry, I'm thirsty! Got anything cold to drink?"

The sixteen year old turned around, looking down on the ten year old with a smile, "What if I can do you one better Al?" Alphonse smiled as Winry opened the freezer behind her, pulling out a familiar looking tray. Condensation smoked off of it as Winry gave two wooden sticks a large tug, pulling out a large double apple ice pop and handing it to the younger boy.

Alphonse couldn't believe his eyes. Winry was handing him a double ice pop with two sticks, meant for two people to share, but this was just for him.

He had it all to himself.

Alphonse ran out the door, shouting a thanks to Winry as he began to work on one side of the ice pop, happily taking in the apple flavor. As he walked towards a nearby rock wall he thought back to the last time he'd had one of them, he was very happy when Granny had given the large pop to him, but his face had dropped once she told him to share with his brother.

He had met Ed at the wall and broke the popsicle in two, handing the smaller side to Ed.

"Hey! How come you get the bigger side?!" He'd asked, a frown on his face.

"Well brother, I think the taller of the two of us should get the bigger side." Al offered a small smirk as he held the apple pop away.

"I"M NOT THAT MUCH SHORTER THAN YOU! And I'm the older brother! The bigger side should go to me by default!"

"I guess now I'm the older brother then." The taller boy stuck his tongue out before he began to eat the pop.

"Awe come on Al! No fair! You know that's not how it works!" Ed reluctantly began to eat his smaller sized pop.

"Alright fine." Al chuckled,"You get the bigger side next time, deal?"

"Deal!"

A few drops of liquid on his hands snapped Al out of his thoughts, he quickly lapped it up as he took a seat on the rock wall. The one he and Ed had sat on while eating their pops in his memory.

As he began to wear down one side of the pop, the boy began to realize just how sticky his hands were getting from the apple juice on the other side of the pop. Al then realized that he didn't really feel like finishing the entire thing, it would only make more of a mess, and he was getting tired of the flavor as well.

A small grin spread across his face as an idea sprouted in his head. He broke it in half, turned to the side and held it out. "Here you go brother! You can have-" Al stopped himself as a frown replaced his grin he'd worn just moments ago.

"Oh... yeah, right." The empty spot beside him suddenly brought tears to his eyes. He suddenly wasn't hungry for ice pops, he tossed both sides beyond the wall for some fox, or Den to find and lap up later.

He hugged his knees to his chest as he held in sniffles. Brother had been missing for about a month now. He was out there, alive and well, Alphonse was sure of it.

But if he was really out there... why hadn't he come home yet?

Was Ed scared that Al wouldn't want him as a brother anymore now that he was so much older than him?

Al bit his lip at the thought. It had been weird waking up four and a half years after the failed transmutation, everyone around him having grown and matured. Not to mention the random people that claimed to have known him that he just couldn't remember at all, like the pink haired girl Rose, or the military man with the black hair. What was his name? Mustang? Al shook his head, it didn't matter anyhow. Really the only person who didn't change a single bit was Granny, but she'd always looked the same.

Al took a deep breath and wiped his eyes, trying to escape the thoughts in his head. He thought about what his brother would have said to his offer of the ice pop.

 _"Sure!"_ Ed would say, snatching the ice pop from his hands, _"About time you held up your end of the bargain."_ The two of them would then eat their ice pops and talk, laugh, and play.

Alphonse allowed a small smile to grace his face. It was almost like brother was actually there... Imagining Ed actually helped him feel a little better. He sniffled again, before wiping the remaining tears away. Sure, Ed wasn't actually there, but Al knew exactly what it would be like if he was.

Half a week later found Al swinging on an old wooden swing on the top of a hill as he gazed down at the kids at the bottom playing tag. He smiled as he turned to the figure of his brother he'd conjured up.

" _Come on Al, give me a turn!"  
_  
"Alright brother! Just a few more minutes!" Alphonse offered a grin towards 'Ed' as he swung higher.

"Hey! Alphonse!" a young boy ran up, the blonde remembered Winry introducing him as 'Mica' sometime a couple weeks ago.

"Uh, hi."

"Do ya wanna play tag with us?! You just look a bit lonely here all by yourself, and I would love to have you join the game!"

"Um, no thanks Mica… I'm all good here." Al kicked towards the ground as he neared it, attempting to gain more height.

"Okay! But you are free to join whenever if you ever want to!" Mica gave a sad smile as he turned and began to head back down the hill.

" _Can't he see we are good on our own?"_ Ed asked, leaning against the trunk of the tree.

"Yea, I don't need anyone but you!" the blonde adopted a grin on his face.

"What was that Al?" Mica turned around, looking slightly hopeful.

"Oh uh nothing! I didn't say anything, heh." the swing slowed as Al rubbed the back of his neck with a small embarrassed blush, Mica simply shrugged at his actions and joined the other children below.

Alphonse smiled and looked to 'Ed', "Okay! It's your turn now!"

" _Awesome!"  
_  
A week after, Alphonse was sniffling and sobbing again, but for different reasons than last time.

"It's okay Al, it will heal." Winry reassured the young Elric as she dressed his wound. "Next time don't wander towards wild foxes."

"I'm sorry Winry, it looked like a cat from behind."

Winry stood up and left to get more materials to dress his wound as Al looked at the damage.

" _Can you still walk? It got your leg good!"_ Ed pointed out as Al stood and winced at the pain that shot up his leg.

"I'll be okay brother, we can still play, but I think we have to wait until tomorrow."

" _Great! I can't wait!"_

"Me either!"

"Who are you talking to Al?" Winry entered the room once more.

"Ed!"

"What do you mean Al? Ed… he isn't around anymore…"

"Don't be silly Winry! He's right here! Tell her brother!" Al turned his head towards Ed.

 _"I'm right here! Are you blind or something?"_

Al looked towards Winry expectantly, but she only looked down at him in confusion. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"He asked you a question, are ya gonna answer?"

"Al…" Winry trailed off looking towards him in concern. "There's nobody-"

"Whatever, you are just being dumb." Al huffed and crossed his arms, turning away.

The subject was quickly dropped.

The next night Al was asked to set the table for supper, which he happily did. He set up four plates, glasses, and sets of silverware at the table.

As Winry entered the room with Granny she giggled and asked, "Al, why did you set the table for four people?"

"Because four people are eating!"

"Buddy, there's only three people here."

"No! Stop being ridiculous Winry! There is me, you, Granny, and Ed of course!"

" _She must have forgotten to count herself."_ Ed grinned and crossed his arms.

The older blonde and the gray haired women shared a glance before sighing and setting the table.

Al pretended not to notice their odd expressions towards him as he spoke to his brother throughout supper.

The next day, Al tossed a ball to the other side of the yard, and chuckled as it hit the ground. "Silly brother! You missed it again, now Den is gonna get it!" the dog in question snatched up the ball and played a bit of keep away with Al until it was retrieved once more.

Then, the cycle continued.

"You have really bad reflexes!"

"Den is faster than you brother!"

"So close!"

He glanced up towards the porch as Den grabbed the ball once more. Granny and Winry were discussing something, their faces looked really serious. The two noticed Al looking their way before they spoke a few more words and called him over.

"Alphonse! We need to talk to you!" Granny called.

"Alright Granny! Come on Ed!" Al ran up to the deck and looked at them expectantly.

"We should have this talk inside…" Winry trailed off, heading into the house, followed by Granny.

Al seated himself on the couch, Granny sat in her favorite chair, and Winry took a seat on the ottoman. Al glanced at them, and found himself frowning, "What did you want to talk to us about?"

"No Al, we need to talk to you. You only." Granny spoke firmly.

"Oh… you don't want to talk to Ed too? I-"

"Alphonse." Winry looked up from the floor towards him, "There is no Ed."

"What are you talking about? He's right-"

"No he's not. Ed isn't here Alphonse, he is gone."

"Don't be ri-"

"He isn't here Al. You need to accept that."

"But brother is right-"

"No he isn't." Winry gave him a cold serious stare. "Ed is gone Alphonse, he isn't here, no matter how much you wish he were. Pretending isn't going to help you face the truth of it. You need to accept that Ed isn't here."

Al's eyes filled with tears, "What are you talking about!? Brother is-"

"No he's not Al! You are imagining it!" Winry stood from her ottoman and kneeled in front of Al, taking his hand, "Ed is gone."

"No! He's not!" Al ripped his hand out of her grip and hugged his arms around himself, tears beginning to fall.

"Ed is gone Al, do you see him?"

"YES!"

"Where?"

"RIGHT THERE!" Al pointed to the seat next to him.

Winry stood, and walked across the room to a table which held her toolbox. She took out a rusted old wrench. "Al, I want you to watch."

"Winry?"

"ALPHONSE! I need you to not look away."

Al was silent as he watched Winry hold the wrench tightly in her hand, and smack it down as hard as she could on the spot where Al said his brother was.

"Do you see him Al?"

"..."

"Do you see him, is he hurt?"

"..."

"Alphonse."

"..."

"N-no… I don't."

"Why don't you?"

"I don't know… he was just there." Al's voice broke into a sob as tears freely poured down his face.

"I know why Al, Ed was never there… you imagined him because you just missed him, so much. You couldn't bear to see your brother hurt like he would have been so you forced yourself to stop imagining."

Al looked up at Winry, hiccuping, before he threw himself into her arms.

"It hurts so bad." Al inhaled deeply, "I miss brother."

"I know Al… I miss him too." Winry hugged him tighter.

"I just knew what he would say, and what he would do, if he were… were, were still-" he cut himself off with a sob.

"I know, I know…" Winry hugged him tighter as the smaller boy returned the hug.

"Please Winry… ca-can you promise me-that you wo-won't leave… I can't lose my other sibling too…" Al sobbed into her shirt.

"I won't leave my little brother behind, I promise… and we'll find Ed. We will… One day we'll have our brother back." Winry promised, as Granny joined the hug as well. "Everything will be okay Al…" they stayed in the embrace making vows, and building bonds, until the sobs reduced to sniffles, and they pulled away.

"Hey Al?"

"Yea Winry?"

"Would you like to see what Ed would look like now? We have some pictures of him more recently."

Al's red from crying eyes blinked before he nodded, "Y-yea, I would actually like that a lot."

Winry ran upstairs for a moment before coming back down with a handful of photos. "Here he is! Showing off his state alchemist watch!" Al sat closely beside her, while Granny sat on the other side of the girl.

"What is he wearing?" Al chuckled.

"He grew to really like red and black."

"Guess that's what happens when you let brother dress himself." Al sniffled with a small smile.

"Here he is with Colonel Mustang!" Winry pulled out another, which depicted Ed looking very annoyed, giving a half assed salute towards the superior officer.

"He looks kinda, pissed." the boy chuckled.

"He was always pissed with Mustang." Winry snorted as she pulled out the next one.

The rest of the night was spent looking, and laughing at photos of Ed throughout the years. The small family found themselves for the first time since they can remember, content and happy. They all missed people, but they missed people together, and that was what brought them together.

* * *

 **Hi there! This is my first FMA fic so I would really appreciate some feedback! So please leave a review if you have something to say!**

 **Thank you for reading!**


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